Harry Potter and the Olympians
by luckyskul1
Summary: The Battle of Manhattan has ended, and the gods and heroes of Olympus were victorious. Percy thought he would be able to rest for a while. He thought wrong. Now, he and his friends have been called back to Camp Half-Blood by Chiron, in order to travel to the wizarding world and help the wizards win their own war. NO SLASH. LIMITED ROMANCE. Rated T for language/violence.
1. I Recieve A Letter From No One

HARRY POTTER AND THE OLYMPIANS

Chapter One:

I Receive a Letter from No One

**Percy**

I was having a nightmare. Flashes of the events of the day before—Typhon almost reaching the city, the carnage within the city, and the horrible scene from atop mount Olympus, especially Luke's final sacrifice—kept repeating over and over inside my head. I had reached the age of sixteen, "against all odds", and though ultimately we had succeeded, our victory had not come without a great price. My subconscious mind was screaming for the images to stop. And then suddenly, the dream shifted.

I was in a dimly lit room. The only light emanated from a fireplace opposite of where I was looking. In front of the fire there was a large armchair. A small, balding man knelt next to it. "Tell me, Wormtail," said a high, cold voice, coming from whoever was seated in the chair. "Do we have a plan for infiltration?"

"N-no, my Lord."I could hear the fear in the small man's voice. "Our _friends_ have informed me that it will be quite difficult to achieve. Particularly with the increased level of security at the moment. We m-must carefully plan every move."

"Do you think me an idiot, Wormtail?" There was a hiss. Did the man in the armchair do that? The man who was apparently called Wormtail flinched. "Of course I know that. No matter, we shall simply wait and see. I have a few of my best followers stationed there, scouting for information. I expect we'll know what to do soon enough. You may leave, Wormtail, I have no more need of you tonight.

"Y-yes, my Lord. Summon me if you need anything else."

Wormtail rose and backed out of the room, past my viewpoint.

From the chair, then, came very strange sounds. They were hissing, spitting sounds. Some sort of language? It sounded like Scythian _dracaenae_, perhaps what their native language might sound like. Whatever it was, I couldn't understand a word of it. Then the high, cold voice rang out again.

"Yes, Nagini, I know that there is someone eavesdropping on us. I suppose now would be a good time to give our guest a _proper_ greeting." The man rose from the chair, and something slithered off of his lap. I realized what had hissed earlier, and what this guy had been speaking to in that strange language. It was a snake. The man began to turn around.

I woke up with a start, then realized I was safe in my bed, in my room, in my mom and stepdad's apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan Sunlight was streaming in the window. I sighed and put my palms over my eyes. What in Hades had that dream been about? Even by demigod standards, that dream had been _weird_. According to my clock, it was a little after 7 am. Way too early for me, but I knew there was no way I would be able to get back to sleep. I swung my feet out of bed and stood up facing my dresser. There was an envelope on it. I picked it up. It was made of thick, heavy paper, and it was addressed to me.

Mr. P. Jackson

His Room

Apartment of Sally Jackson and Paul Blofis

Lower East Side

Manhattan

Even with my dyslexia, I could easily understand that this envelope was meant for me. For the second time that morning, I thought, _What in Hades?_ Had the gods sent this or something? I turned it over. It was sealed the old-fashioned way—you know, with a wax seal and everything. Printed on the flap was a crest. "Gwohrats", I thought it said, on a ribbon at the top. _No, of course it doesn't,_ I thought to myself I forced myself to concentrate and read it properly. I figured out that it actually said, "Hogwarts", which frankly didn't make any more sense. What in the name of Poseidon was going on? The rest of the crest was a big shield, divided into four sections. A red lion, a green snake, a yellow badger, and a blue eagle posed majestically within them. Printed below that were some words: _Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus_. Latin, I knew. I thought it said something about a sleeping dragon. Some sort of motto, it looked like. I was getting more and more confused by the second.

Finally, I slipped my finger under the edge of the flap and opened the letter, my fingers trembling uncontrollably. I pulled out a folded piece of paper, the same thick stuff the envelope was made of. As I pulled open the flaps of the letter, another piece of paper fell out and tumbled to the ground. I picked it up. It was a note from Chiron:

_Dear Percy,_

_ I am sorry, but I'm afraid we have yet another problem on our hands. I will ask you to read the rest of the contents of this letter, and then return to Camp Half-Blood as soon as you are able to. I will explain more once you arrive._

_ Sincerely, _

_ Chiron_

_ Oh gods,_ I thought. Why _now_? This whole business was giving me a headache.

I turned my attention to the other piece of paper. It, too, was a letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

_of _WITCHCRAFT _and_ WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

Dear Mr. Jackson,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the duration of this school year. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1 We await your owl by no later than August 19.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

_Deputy Headmistress_

At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed and forget about it. I mean, I had defeated the freaking Titan lord _yesterday_, and now some stuffy old school for—WIZARDS?—wanted me as an exchange student. I mean, I _knew_ I seriously needed a break (also, I thought, _August 19__th__? That's TODAY!)_ But then, the back of my mind, the hero part, began nagging at me. I knew, without a doubt, that this had something to do with the dream I'd had.

I sighed. My only option, I figured, was to heed Chiron's letter and get my butt to Camp Half-Blood ASAP. I dressed quickly, in an orange camp t-shirt and jeans, and trudged out into the living area, bringing the letter with me. My mom and Paul were sitting at the breakfast table. Mom was clutching a mug of coffee, while Paul read _The New York Times_ intently. On the front page were reports about the strange events of the past week. The mortals may have had a skewed vision of what really happened, but seeing those images still made me remember more than I'd have liked.

"You're up early, Percy. You okay?" my mom asked, looking worried. I felt sick in my gut, knowing how much more I was about to worry her.

"Yeah," I lied. "Bad dreams, I guess."

"I'd expect as much, considering what you've had to go through," said Paul, finally looking up from the newspaper. "Want to talk about it, sport?"

I decided I might as well. I told them about my dream, especially the last part. When I finished, my mom and stepdad didn't say anything. I decided to break the news of the letter.

"Another thing. When I woke up, I found this on my dresser." I gave the letter from Hogwarts and the note from Chiron to my mom to read. Paul looked over her shoulder, reading along. When they finished my mom looked up.

"Oh, honey. I'm sorry. This just isn't fair! You know, you don't _have_ to go. You of all people deserve a break."

"I know." I replied. "I _do_ deserve a break. But... I can't just ignore this. I _know_ this letter is connected to my dream somehow. Besides, I'm a demigod. My life just isn't _meant_ to be peaceful. I'm going to go to Camp Half-Blood, see what Chiron needs. Who knows, maybe it's a minor thing."

Paul cut in. "I hate to say this, but I think he's right, Sally. It's okay. Your son is strong."

"I know. Percy, do what you think is right. But don't do _anything_ major without giving me a call first, okay?" My mom seemed resigned.

"Of course, mom. You know I will," I assured her. "Anyways, Chiron is waiting for me. I'd better be off. Love you!"

"You too, sweetie."

I walked out of our apartment, down onto the street. Then I whistled, loudly. Soon I heard the sound of big wings beating.

_Yo, boss! Whatcha need?_

"Hey, Blackjack. Um, I kinda need a lift to camp."

_Sure, boss. But, uh, why? Isn't the big war thingy over?_

"I thought it was, yeah. But now... well, I'm not so sure." I sighed.

_Whatever. Hop on!_

I did, and we flew out, over the still-ruined city, to Half-Blood Hill, where, hopefully, I would find out what this hoopla was all about.

* * *

**A/N: Hey, so this is my first ever fanfic. I realized after I wrote it, though, that I had set it in the wrong timeline. Originally I was going to set it in the timeline of the fifth HP book, OOTP, but then I decided it would work better in the timeline of the sixth book, HBP. Except I forgot to change this chapter before I published it. Sorry about that!**

**Besides that, I hope you enjoy my story, and please, please, REVIEW!**


	2. Hogwarts Hosts Some Exchange Students

Chapter Two:

Hogwarts Hosts Some Exchange Students - Again

_A Few Weeks Earlier..._

**Harry**

The day after my birthday, our Hogwarts letters came. They were pretty much the same as usual—letters inviting us back to Hogwarts, along with the booklist for the year. I scanned the letter. It was mostly the usual—_Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts_, and so on. Apparently I'd been made Quidditch Captain, too. Then, at the bottom, something caught my eye.

We would also like to inform you that this year, Hogwarts shall be playing host to a number of exchange students from America. Therefore, Headmaster Dumbledore would like to encourage each and every one of you to welcome these students with kindness and open arms. We may find it is helpful to have strong allies in dark times such as these.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

_Deputy Headmistress_

I realized that's what Dumbledore had been talking about. A few weeks ago, he had come to the Dursleys' house to pick me up and bring me to the Burrow. On the way, we had stopped by the house of someone who had apparently been an old colleague of Dumbledore, Horace Slughorn. We were on a mission to recruit the man, as there were teaching positions at Hogwarts that still needed to be filled. _Great, another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who will probably end up sacked, insane, or dead by the end of this year, _I thought.

Afterwards, when we'd arrived at the Burrow, Dumbledore had pulled me into the Weasleys' broom cupboard to have a talk. Most of it was things I'd expected—about the prophecy, the current state of the wizarding world, things like that. But then Dumbledore had said something odd.

"One more thing, Harry. I expect things at Hogwarts to be a bit...different this year," he'd said, gazing at me over his half-moon glasses.

"Well, isn't that, well, obvious, sir? I mean, with Voldemort out in the open and everything?" I was confused.

"Well, yes, but in other ways, too. I've contacted an old friend of mine, as it has come to me that we may need more help in this fight than we wizards can muster on our own. He and his...brethren are currently fighting a war of their own at the moment, so it may be a while before they can be of any assistance. But their war shares many similarities with ours, so I believe they indeed _can_ help us. Having allies during these times is so incredibly important. As such, Harry, it would be wise of you to begin school with an open mind." He smiled, his blue eyes twinkling behind his spectacles.

"I understand," I replied, though I didn't have the faintest idea what he was getting at.

"Very well, then," Dumbledore had said, pushing open the broom shed door and stepping out into the yard. "I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how thin you are."

I had followed him inside and been welcomed into the Weasley household by Molly, but for the next few weeks, questions about what Dumbledore had said kept plaguing my mind.

When Ron finished reading his letter, he looked at me. Hermione was still poring over the booklist.

"Bloody hell," Ron said, confusion clearly evident on his face. "What d'you think this is about. Exchange students?"

"I dunno, but Dumbledore said something about this when he brought me to the Burrow." I replied. "He said that there were some people who he thought could help us in the war."

Hermione finally looked up. "Well, no matter what, I'm excited to meet these exchange students. From America! I wonder what magical education is like there!"

"Hermione, remember the _Triwizard Tournament_? Do you _remember_ how that turned out?" I reminded her.

"Yes, well, we'll just have to wait and see, won't we?" Hermione said. "Anyways, have you seen the booklist? Most of it's normal, but look, there, at the bottom. Greek mythology?"

I looked. _ A Wizard's Guide to the Greek Myths_, by Hector the Heroic. "Must be for History of Magic," I inferred.

"Yes, I'm sure. But oh! That's going to be so exciting! I've always wanted to learn whether there was a connection between magic and Ancient Greece! I wonder what we're going to learn... this might just be the most interesting year of History of Magic yet!" Hermione babbled.

"Fat chance," Ron grumbled. "Like History of Magic could _ever_ be interesting."

"Oh Ron, do you _always _ have to be such a wet blanket? You don't know!" Hermione snapped back.

"Whatever. Let's go play Quidditch."

"Sounds good," I said, and we marched out the door, though I still didn't quite know what was going on. Little did I know what kind of year I was in for...

* * *

**A/N: So, here I am with another chapter. I won't be promising _daily_ updates, since I'm going out of town in a few weeks and won't be back until school starts, and then... you know how it goes. I have a lot of free time on my hands at the moment, but once school starts I'll shoot for weekly. Capiche?**

**Chapter 3 is already written, I'll post that tomorrow. Yay suspense!  
**

**I've gotten reviews asking for me not to put Percy in Gryffindor since that's overused. I totally understand! I hate cliches as much as the next person. Unfortunately, that's where he's going. He's not smart enough for Ravenclaw, not cunning enough for Slytherin and not lame enough for Hufflepuff. He's a _hero_, for gods' sake, so Gryffindor it is. On that note, I'm definitely not going to have everyone in the CHB gang be in Gryffindor, because that _would_ be toats-mcgoats boring. Stay tuned!  
**

**Review please!  
**


	3. We Discuss Wizards

Chapter Three:

We Discuss Wizards

**Grover**

I sat on the sofa in the Big House with Annabeth and Thalia, chewing on a Ping Pong ball. Well, _I_ was chewing a Ping Pong ball. Thalia sat fiddling with her bracelet. Annabeth stared at the carpet, looking out of it, though I knew her brain was actually buzzing at a million miles an hour. Where were the other two? If they didn't get here within the next five minutes, I would probably start eating the sofa.

Luckily, my wish was granted sooner than that. First, Nico DiAngelo melted out of the shadows behind a door, looking as deathly as ever. I suppressed a shudder. Awesomely powerful as he might be, the dude still freaked me out. "Hey," he said. We three nodded. Then, from outside, I heard the beating of massive wings and the thud of hooves hitting the ground. Annabeth snapped out of her reverie, stood up, and ran to the door, throwing it open.

"Percy!" she cried, throwing her arms around my best friend who was standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Wise Girl," he said, hugging her back. "'Sup, G-man?", he said, nodding in my direction.

"Oh gods, Percy, I can't believe it." Annabeth said as she pulled away.

"Where's Chiron? He said to meet here," Percy said warily.

"I'm right here," said a voice. Chiron was standing behind Percy in his true form.

"Chiron! Everyone's here!" Thalia burst out. "Now you _have _to tell us. What in _Hades_ is going on here? I thought Kronos was defeated! Now you're telling us we have _another_ quest?" She sounded mad.

"Patience, child. I promised that I would explain everything once everyone had arrived. Now everyone has arrived, so I will." Chiron reverted back to his wheelchair. "Excuse me, Percy," he said. "You'll need to move into the room if I am going to be able to enter."

Percy did, going to sit on a sofa next to Nico.

"So, heroes, I presume you know something of why you are here." Chiron said once he had settled in in front of us.

"Because of this," said Percy, holding out a letter. It was the same letter I had received, addressed to Percy at his apartment in Manhattan. "Okay, this is seriously weirding me out. I wake up this morning after having an absolutely _nuts_ dream, to find _this_ on my dresser. There are _wizards?_ Why haven't we heard of this before?"

"As I said, Percy, please be patient. I will explain everything. First of all, may I double-check that everyone indeed received the letter?" Chiron studied all of us; I think he was checking to make sure we all still had all our marbles. You know, after experiencing horrible trauma and all that jazz.

We all held up our identical envelopes.

"What the..." Nico said in disbelief. "Actually, what I wanna know is how someone managed to deliver this to me in the Underworld!"

Chiron began to explain. "First of all, I understand how utterly exhausted you all are, and I am sorry to call you back so soon. You will be pleased to know, however, that you won't actually need to _go_ anywhere for a little while. I called you here today because, as you might have read, we have a deadline to meet."

"Uh, yeah," Thalia butted in. "Who sends a letter and expects a reply _on the same day_?"

"I understand your resentment, Thalia," Chiron continued. "However, I am inclined to forgive the wizards. You see, they are currently in the midst of a terrible war, one which has many similarities to the one we so recently fought.

"About six weeks ago, I received a call from my dear friend Albus Dumbledore, who is the headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"That's where our letters came from." Annabeth said, fascinated.

"Yes. Where to begin? First of all, there is something you should be aware of: wizards and witches exist."

"What, do they ride around on brooms and wear pointy hats?" Percy asked mockingly.

"Well, actually, they do," Chiron continued. Percy gaped at him, along with everyone else in the room.

Chiron moved on. "For more than a thousand years, colonies of these magical people have been living in secret around the globe. They are technically mortals, in that they have no inherent godly connections, but they are what you might call, ah..._enhanced_ mortals."

"You mean like Rachel?" Annabeth asked.

"More than that. Witches and wizards have the ability to perform deeds of magic."

"So...more like descendants of Hecate," Annabeth pressed.

"Yes. We aren't sure of the exact origins, but it is one of our strongest theories is that the progenitors of wizardkind did have some connection to the goddess of magic. Now, however, the magical ability is simply in their blood. Hogwarts, the school I am sending you to, is a boarding school where young witches and wizards go to hone their magical abilities and become fully-fledged members of the wizarding world.

"For the past several decades, the wizarding world has been plagued by fear of an evil wizard named Lord Voldemort. Sixteen years ago, he set out to murder a certain family, the Potters. Lily and James were both killed, but when Voldemort attempted to do the same to the Potters' young son Harry, the curse miraculously backfired. The boy survived, and Voldemort was vanquished for a time. Many believed Voldemort to be dead. This was not true, and my friend Albus knew this. Voldemort had simply been reduced to something less than human, through some act of Dark Magic.

"And then, two years ago, Voldemort rose again."

"Two years ago! That's close to when Kronos completed his resurrection!" Annabeth was sitting at the edge of her seat. "Hm...they both were resurrected from a state close to death. Is that why they need our help, Chiron?" I was amazed at her deduction.

"That is it exactly. Yes. Professor Dumbledore was doing...research earlier this summer and realized the Titan lord and this Lord Voldemort were quite similar. Well, apart from Kronos being a Titan and Voldemort being technically human..." Chiron's voice trailed off for a moment.

"Albus didn't want to go into too many details, 'my theories are alas only theories, at the moment,' he told me. But he asked me to spread the word as soon as we had a moment. And now, we do."

"Okay, so what, exactly, are we doing?" Thalia questioned.

"Well. Your task will be to attend Hogwarts as students for the duration of this school year. I chose you five, whom I consider to to be my most capable campers, to act as scouts. You will be at the school undercover, though a select few of the staff will know the truth of who you really are. You must work hard to gather as much information as you can regarding Voldemort, his schemes, and the magical world in general. In addition, you shall serve as extra protection against the dark forces at work. I daresay you are capable of that.

"Now, first things first: do you accept this quest? I must send word to Professor Dumbledore at once."

The four demigods nodded their consent almost immediately. _Hero genes..._ I thought with a sigh. In the end, I also agreed, a bit more reluctantly, maybe, but I didn't want to be the _only_ one left out.

"Well, that's settled. Hm, I know it said to _owl_, but we seem to have a shortage of owls, so this will have to do."

Chiron turned on the mist machine that was sitting on the table and tossed in one golden drachma. "O goddess, accept our offering. Show me Albus Dumbledore."

An image appeared in the mist of an old man sitting at a desk in what looked like some sort of study, facing us. The man had a long white beard, and was wearing the weirdest combination of clothes. He wore long robes the color of lilacs, an honest-to-goodess pointy hat in the same color as his robes, and glasses shaped like half-moons. Interesting guy. Did all wizards dress like this? He had a book open on the desk in front of him, and he was totally engrossed in reading it. One of his hands, I noticed with a gasp, was blackened and shriveled.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Excuse me, Albus." The man at the desk looked up and smiled.

"Chiron!" he exclaimed. I noticed that Dumbledore had bright blue eyes behind his glasses, lighter in color than Thalia's. "How good to see you, my dear friend. And these must be the demigods." He sounded disconcertingly cheerful, considering the current situation, and, you know, his hand.

"And a satyr," I mumbled, holding up a hoof.

"Why, of course. So, these five are my exchange students?"

"Yes," Chiron replied. "I'm sending this Iris-message to you as our confirmation, since we don't have an owl."

"Excellent. I am absolutely looking forward to your arrival here at Hogwarts. I will tell you more when you arrive. But for now, goodbye." Dumbledore waved and smiled, his eyes twinkling. Chiron shut off the machine and the connection.

"Well, then, heroes, I suppose that is all, for now."

"Excuse me, one more thing." Percy cut in. "This morning, before I found my letter, I had a dream. Like, a _really_ weird dream, even by my standards..." He recounted his dream. _Infiltrate where?_ I thought. Plus, the dude in the chair with the snake and his creepy little minion just about made me lose my composure.

But Chiron only nodded. "Hm. That is quite interesting. I have no doubt in my mind that it has a connection to this task. But I'm afraid even I don't quite know what that is, yet. For now, we must take this task one step at a time.

"Anyways, you all will likely be pleased to note that we do not have to leave quite yet. Term starts on September 1st, so I'd like to see you back here by August 30th . That should give us enough time to get things...settled before you begin your stay at Hogwarts. Goodbye for now, and I'd recommend taking it easy for the next two weeks.

* * *

**A/N: So, Chapter Three! I just want to say, thank you so much for all the support you've given me so far! And, as always, please REVIEW!  
**


	4. We Go Shopping

Chapter Four:

We Go Shopping

**Percy**

The next two weeks passed by in a blur. A relaxing blur, but a blur nonetheless. I spent time at home with Mom and Paul. I even hung out with Rachel a few times. I tried not to think about the task at hand. My mom was pretty easy-going about the whole boarding-school in England thing. I mean, it's not like we hadn't had to deal with worse things in the past. She still fussed over me like I was in sixth grade again. "Okay, but you need to call me often, and make sure to pack enough nectar and ambrosia and clean socks and underwear!" I had to assure her that yes, I would do all of those things, and yes, I was 100 percent positive I would be able to handle it. Still, I knew she only did it all out of love.

When it was time, she and Paul insisted on driving me to Camp Half-Blood personally, to see me off. When we reached the top of Half-Blood Hill, she hugged me almost as hard as Tyson. "Sally, let the kid breathe!" Paul said with a chuckle. Finally, she pulled away.

"I'm going to miss you so much! Send me a postcard!" She looked sad, and I felt bad about abandoning her again.

"'Kay Mom, I'll make sure to. Don't worry about me! I've gotten out of worse things, haven't I?" I smiled, trying to put her at ease.

"Believe me, I know. Well, I guess it's goodbye, now. I love you so much!" Oh gods, she looked like she was about to cry again.

"I love you too. See you!" I said. I waved goodbye to Paul, and watched them get into their car and drive off. Then, I crossed the magical border into camp.

Annabeth was waiting for me at the bottom of the hill. I walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Let's go," I said.

Together we walked to the Big House porch, where Chiron and the rest were there to greet us. "All packed?" He asked me.

"Yep," I asserted. I was. In my overnight bag, I had a few changes of clothes. We would apparently be wearing uniforms at Hogwarts, so we didn't need too much. I also had a canteen of nectar and a baggie of ambrosia for emergencies, along with a sack of golden drachmas. Riptide was in my jeans pocket, and my watch/shield was on my wrist. Finally, I had a Tupperware full of my mom's homemade blue chocolate chip cookies. I was ready to go.

Do you like traveling to places by airplane? If you do, you're not Poseidon's kid. Or Hades's kid, for that matter. Unfortunately for me, I _am _Poseidon's kid, so I _don't_ like air travel. Though Chiron had assured Nico and I that Zeus had made an exception for this trip ("considering your...performance in recent events," Chiron had said), and even though we got seats in the very middle of the middle section of the plane, as far away from the windows as possible, the trip was still a nightmare. Not helped by the fact that I carried a deadly weapon in my pocket that I was nervous the TSA would detect at any moment, and chuck me off the plane. I tried to stay focused on the in-flight movie to distract me, and munched on cookies. It helped, a little. I also tried to keep my mind on other things, like what Chiron had said before we left.

_ "You might be wondering why you five in particular were chosen for this quest. First, we needed a leader. Someone who could not only be a leader for the members of this quest, but for our friends in the wizarding world who need one as well. For that, I chose Percy._

_ "Nico, your connections to the Underworld and your knowledge regarding death will likely prove invaluable, as we seem to be in opposition to someone who has cheated death in a terrible way." _

_ "Annabeth, your powers of deduction, not to mention your knack for picking up new information will also be of utmost importance when it comes to gathering information on the magical world._

_ "Thalia, we may find that the Hunters of Artemis will be powerful allies if it comes to a fight, and so I send you, the lieutenant to Lady Artemis._

_ "And finally, Grover, your place on the Council of Cloven Elders and your love for the natural world will be extremely important in righting the crimes against nature that are currently being committed."_

I sighed (I'd been sighing a lot in the past two weeks). I was supposed to be a leader again? I mean, I _had_ done that in the Battle of Manhattan, and I guess it had worked pretty well. But how was I supposed to be a leader for a group of people I hadn't even known _existed_ until two weeks ago, at a boarding school I'd never heard of, in a country where they speak with British accents? I decided to take things "one step at a time," as Chiron had suggested.

When we finally landed at Heathrow Airport, Thalia, Nico, Grover and I walked into the terminal with expressions of major relief on our faces. In fact, Annabeth seemed to be the only one unfazed by spending so much time off of the ground. Even so, we were all dead on our feet from a combination of jet lag and sleep deprivation. We somehow made it out of the airport and into a dingy little airport hotel nearby. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

Exhausted as I was, I _still_ managed to dream.

I was in a house. An old house. An old house that looked like it was going to fall down any second. Despite that, it didn't feel menacing. It felt homey and warm, the sort of warmth I got from my mom's blue chocolate chip cookies. I was in a room, but I wasn't alone. Seated on the floor were three teenagers who looked like they were about my age. One was a skinny kid with untidy jet black hair and bright green eyes, with a thin red scar on his forehead. He looked a lot like me, actually. As I looked closer, I saw that the scar was in the shape of a ligtning bolt. Next to him on the carpet was another boy, this one tall, gangly and freckly, with a mop of ginger hair. The last one was a girl with bushy brown hair.

"It seems very unlikely, Harry," said the girl. "What makes you think—?"

"In Madam Malkin's. She didn't touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He's been branded with the Dark Mark!" The black-haired boy was indignant. _Harry?_ I thought. Was this the "Harry Potter" Chiron had mentioned? Apart from that, I had no clue what they were talking about. Someone had apparently been—_branded?_ With something called a _Dark Mark?_ Whatever it was, it didn't sound like a good thing. The red-haired boy and the brown-haired girl glanced at each other nervously.

"Well..." said the ginger kid.

"I'm not sure, Harry..." That was the girl. Her tone of voice reminded me of Annabeth's when she got skeptical about something.

"Yeah, I still don't reckon You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join..."

This apparently pissed off Harry, because he stood up, grabbed a pile of clothes and walked out of the room. With that, I woke up.

I was back in the hotel room. It was morning. Nico and Grover still snored on the beds adjacent to mine, while Thalia slept peacefully in another. Only Annabeth was awake. She was curled up in a moth-eaten armchair, poring over the instructions Chiron had given her.

I walked over to crouch next to her, and whispered, "Good morning."

She started. "Gods, Percy, don't scare me like that! I'm just trying to make sense of these instructions. Apparently, we're supposed to buy our supplies somewhere called Diagon Alley. What kind of name is that anyways? Has no one noticed that it's just "diagonally" spelled differently?"

I snorted. "Not everyone is the daughter of Athena, Wise Girl."

"Whatever. Anyways, this is where we're headed today. If we have time, I'd love to explore the city a bit, too. I've read about it, of course, but to actually see this level of architecture in person..." She trailed, off, daydreaming.

"Annabeth, there's another thing you should know about..." I told her the details of my dream.

"Hmm...you're right, he probably _is_ the Harry Chiron mentioned. You-Know-Who... according to this information packet, "You-Know-Who" is a euphemism used by the majority of the wizarding world to refer to Lord Voldemort. They're so scared of him that they refuse to even call him by his real name. Now that's just silly. If you ask me, I say that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself!"Annabeth sounded so sure of herself, it was almost funny.

"But, Annabeth. _We_ do that too. Didn't _you_ tell me once that 'names have power'? Or else why do we have to keep calling Kronos the 'Titan lord'?"

"That's different." She looked at me with an expression that plainly said, "Well, _duh_." "Those are immortal beings we're talking about. Names of gods, Titans, other powerful spirits, are nothing to be thrown about lightly. But this guy? He may be powerful and scary by wizard standards, but he's still _mortal_. There is absolutely no reason to go around fearing his name.

"Anyways, apparently Harry here believes someone has gone over to Voldemort's side, but his friends don't believe him. Sounds like Harry carries a grudge against somebody. I don't think there's much we can do at the moment, but that'll be something to watch for once we get to Hogwarts."

"Great, one more thing to keep track of." I wasn't too excited at the prospect of being this kid—who sounded like a whiny brat—'s babysitter.

"Oh, I'm sure it will be fine," Annabeth tried to reassure me.

"Whatever. There's another thing, though, that's been kinda bugging me. Why are the gods interested in this whole deal anyways? It seems kinda...petty and mortal compared to the crap we took care of this summer."

"I've thought about that too." Of course she had, that braniac. "Usually they only get involved majorly if it's something that endangers the future of Western society. So Voldemort must have a serious potential of destroying Western society as it is. That's what makes the most sense to me."

_Damn,_ I thought. We were in deeper shit than I'd thought.

"My gods. This Voldy guy is supposed to be _mortal_? Now you're making it sound like he's capable of as doing as much as the Titan lord! Is that even possible?" I shuddered at the thought.

"I know. It sounds bad, doesn't it? But we defeated Kronos with heroes alone, didn't we? By combining forces of gods, heroes and any wizards who will stand with us, I truly believe we can defeat Voldemort in the end.

"But we don't have to worry about that quite yet, Seaweed Brain. Right now, I think we should face the more daunting task of waking up the rest of the group. We have a lot to do today. You get Nico and Grover, I'll work on Thalia."

Nico proved to be fairly easy to rouse. I said his name quietly and he was up and out of bed, rummaging in his bag for clothes. Grover, not so much. He didn't budge, even when I shook him several times. Finally, I leaned down and said, "Enchiladas for breakfast!" With that, he sat straight up and said, "FOOD! Where? Where?"

I just laughed and said, "Sorry, G-man. Time to get up."

I was just glad I didn't have to get Thalia. When Annabeth put her hand on Thalia's shoulder, the Hunter lurched out of bed, Aegis fully extended. Not exactly my idea of a pleasant start to the day.

Once everyone was dressed and ready, we followed Annabeth out the door. We realized once we got out onto the street that we weren't going to be able to do anything without food, so we stopped at a little café and ate tea and scones for breakfast.

Finally, we were all set. We caught two taxis to take us to Charing Cross Road in central London, where, according to Annabeth, there was an entrance to this Diagon Alley place. When we got there, Annabeth set off, the rest of us following close behind. We walked for what seemed like hours, while Annabeth closely surveyed the buildings we passed. Then suddenly, she stopped, causing me to nearly walk into her. "What?" I asked.

"In there. The entrance to Diagon Alley is in there." She was pointing to a small, unassuming black door.

"Huh?" I said. "Annabeth, that place doesn't look open for business."

"Of course it doesn't, Seaweed Brain. Diagon Alley is an entire _street_ full of magical shops. They can't exactly have regular mortals stumbling on it, so they hide it. Apparently, the entrance is in there. This door is also hidden by the wizarding equivalent of Mist. Only wizards and people with non-mortal blood can see it. Anyways, we're wasting time. Let's go!"

She turned, marched up to the door, and turned the knob. It swung open, and we entered into a dimly lit pub. The weirdest thing about it was, it was completely empty. The only person inside was the toothless old barkeep behind the counter, who looked so lonely I just wanted to give him a big hug—not typical behavior for me, by the way. Annabeth approached him.

"Excuse me, are you Tom?" she asked.

"That'd be me," he replied gloomily. "Are you here for a drink, or do you just need to get into the back?"

"I'm sorry, sir, we just need to get to Diagon Alley. We're not from around here."

"I can hear that much. Taking a holiday, are we?" I guess he was somewhat justified in being suspicious of a gang of teenagers walking around alone during times like these, especially considering Nico's looks.

"No, sir, we're going to be exchange students at Hogwarts this year," Annabeth replied.

"Hm. Well, I assume Dumbledore must know what he's doing... Follow me." Tom led us into the back of the pub and out into a small courtyard enclosed by stone walls. Annabeth nodded.

"Thank you, sir, I've got it from here."

"Sure, sure. Well, ask me if there's anything else you kids need, 'kay?" He seemed to have warmed up a bit. Maybe he wasn't used to passersby who actually stopped to talk to him.

Once he'd gone inside, Annabeth stepped up to the wall and pulled out her bronze knife.

"What in Hades is that for?" Thalia exclaimed.

"Apparently, celestial bronze can work the same way as a wizard's wand in certain situations. Not enough to give us the full powers of a wizard, but for small stuff like _this_," she tapped a brick on the wall, "it'll work just fine."

She stepped back, and Grover gasped. The bricks in the wall, which had looked completely solid, had slid back to form an archway that opened onto a narrow, cobbled street. "Holy Zeus," breathed Thalia.

Annabeth turned around to face us. "Here," she said, handing each of us a small drawstring sack. When I peered inside, I saw that it was filled with coins—small bronze ones, medium-sized silver ones, and enormous golden ones that looked sort of like big golden drachmas.

"This is wizarding money," Annabeth continued. "There's also a bank on this street, but apparently security's really tight right now so it takes forever to do anything there."

_Gods,_ I thought. What was it with these secret societies and their penchant for metal money? Couldn't they _at least_ realize how much more practical paper money and cards are for general use? There are some things I'll never understand.

Annabeth turned back around and began walking up the street. Diagon Alley was not a cheerful place. It looked like every other shop was boarded up and deserted. Purple posters with instructions on how to not get killed by Voldemort's crew were plastered up all over the place, apparently courtesy of a "Ministry of Magic". WANTED posters of Voldemort's supporters blinked down at me, teaching me two things: one, Voldemort's supperters were known as "Death Eaters", and two, _wizard photos moved!_ There were countless ramchackle little streetside stands selling trinkets and tokens, all in the name of protection against the "dark forces". And the few people out on the street moved quickly with fearful, shifty-eyed expressions on their faces. All in all, the place made the Underworld seem like Happy-Happy Fun Land.

Our first stop was a bookshop called Flourish & Blott's (Lifourish nda Lobtt's, I thought the sign said at first) to purchase all the textbooks we'd need for the year. "Since we obviously won't be taking any classes that require a wand, that lightens our load quite a bit," Annabeth said happily.

That being said, the booklist was still the weirdest I'd ever seen:

A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Advanced Potion Making By Libatius Borage

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them By Newt Scamander

and...

"Greek Mythology?" Nico exclaimed.

"I know. I'm a bit confused about that, too," Annabeth admitted. "It sounds like a surefire way to get us found out. Hopefully this Dumbledore guy knows what he's doing."

Um, yeah. He'd better. Anyways, we found all the books we needed, paid for them with the money in our bags, and left the shop.

The next place we went was for uniforms, at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There, we were sized for robes, and also a pair of thick dragon-hide gloves for each of us.

After that, there were several items left on the list:

1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

1 set glass or crystal phials

1 telescope

1 set brass scales,

which we bought at a shop selling various types of magical equipment.

We continued down the street. When we passed by a store called Eeylop's Owl Emporium, Annabeth's eyes got wide. She told us to wait and walked into the store.

Ten minutes later, she emerged holding a cage containing a handsome owl with dark orange eyes. Of course. Owls were Annabeth's favorite animal, since they were the symbol of Athena, Annabeth's mom.

Annabeth looked at us sheepishly. "...I thought it might be useful to be able to use the wizard form of communication." Sure, Annabeth. "All right, there's only one thing left to buy," she said, back to business again.

We walked down the steet, and entered a luggage shop. Annabeth walked up to the counter and rang the bell that was there. A sleazy looking saleswizard emerged from behind a curtained-off doorway. "Um," Annabeth said meekly. "Excuse me, I'm here to pick up an order placed by somebody named Chiron?"

The sleazy guy nodded and said, "I'll have it brought out, miss. Wait here." He waved his wand lazily and five large objects came floating out through the curtain in the doorway. They landed with a gentle _thump_ on the floor in front of us, and I saw that they were big, wheeled, leather-bound trunks with the Hogwarts crest stamped on the tops.

"These are what we're going to be using for our stuff," explained Annabeth. I looked at the one in front of me. It was sea green leather, with the letters "PJ" printed on one end in gold lettering. Annabeth's was stormy gray with silver lettering, Thalia's light bue with silver lettering, Grover's forest green with gold letters, and Nico's pitch black with silver letters.

We put all of our new supplies in our trunks and left the shop, walking all the way back down the street to the pub, which was apparently named "The Leaky Cauldron". We bought drinks called "Butterbeer" from Tom on the way out, which made him so happy I was afraid he'd faint. By the way, Butterbeer? It's amazing. I'm not sure how to describe it except that it's the BEST DRINK YOU'VE EVER FRICKIN' TASTED. It had this strange ability to warm you up inside, too, sort of like nectar.

Anyways, we left Diagon Alley and took the Underground back to our hotel, despite Grover's constant mutterings of "monsters...". We deposited our stuff in our room, and at Annabeth's insistence, went out sightseeing. We visited the Tower of London, ate lunch at a sidewalk café, walked by Buckingham Palace, strolled through Kensington Gardens, took photos of Big Ben, and went for a ride on the London Eye ferris wheel (Well, most of us did. Thalia stayed on the ground and covered her eyes.). Finally, we stood on Westminster Bridge, looking out over the Thames, and wondering what we were in for.

"I can't believe it," said Thalia. "One minute we think everything's over, and then the world's like, no, actually, there's wizards, and no, you can't relax, you have to go save their skinny little magical asses from the big bad wizard."

"Lighten up, Pinecone Face," I replied. "Yeah, you _could_ think of it that way. We probably all did at first. But it doesn't have to be like that. Let's just have fun! I mean, how many people can actually say they've been to a school for _wizards_? How much do you wanna bet someone gets turned into a toad?"

She smiled. "I bet it'll be _you_, Kelp Head."

Within seconds, all five of us were shooting jokes back and forth at one another, alleviating some of the awful tension we shared, all because of the crazy things we knew were about to happen.

* * *

**A/N: Here's chapter four, FINALLY! I was just being lazy and didn't feel like typing this up. I'm currently reading _The Mark of Athena _(which is quite awesome) right now, though, so I've gained some of my inspiration back.**

**This chapter is long and kind of boring, so bear with me until I start getting into the interesting part.  
**

**Thanks for your continued support! Please review/follow/favorite!  
**

**By the way, I've decided that Annabeth's owl is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Read about it here: .  
**


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